One way to show that he intended his reign to be an improvement on Caligula's was by recalling those who had been exiled (as Caligula himself had done at his accession). Those who returned included Agrippina and lulia Livilla. The public honour Claudius bestowed upon
40 Coins: AN 187-8, 194; GCN 81-6; Sutherland 1987 (в )j8) chs. 30, 32.
his relatives did not mean that he could trust them. His fear of assassination was extreme (up to the last years of his reign, everyone who entered his presence was searched for weapons). Historians have expressed doubt about the extent to which Claudius' third wife Messal- lina was responsible for the executions of these early years of his reign. But many of those who threatened her threatened him too, and Claudius publicly thanked her for warning him against at least some of those he had put to death. Soon after her return, Iulia Livilla was exiled again and then executed. Agrippina fared better; her son Domitius Ahenobarbus returned to her care, and his property, confiscated by Caligula, was restored to him. Agrippina looked for the support of a new husband; her first choice was Livia's protege, Galba, but Galba's mother-in-law pointed out to him that that would make his claim to the imperial office so strong that he could not expect to survive for long. (She also made a point of slapping Agrippina's face in public.) Instead, Agrippina married C. Sallustius Passienus Crispus, the adopted son of Augustus' closest associates (see above pp. 202). As a new member of the imperial family, and potential father of Caesarian children, Crispus had to be honoured with a second consulship in a.d. 44; but he died soon after — poisoned by Agrippina, according to Suetonius - so that Messallina allowed Agrippina to survive.41
Claudius and Messallina also looked for support through matrimonial alliances. In 42 Appius Iunius Silanus was recalled from the governorship of Tarraconensis to marry Messallina's mother Domitia Lepida, daughter of Augustus' niece the elder Antonia. Claudius' daughter by Aelia Paetina, Antonia, was married to Pompeius Magnus, son of Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi (cos. a.d. 27); through his mother Scribonia, he was related to Augustus. Claudius' two-year-old daughter by Messallina, Octavia, was engaged to Augustus' great-great-grandson Lucius Iunius Torquatus Silanus (the youngest son of the consul of a.d. 19, proconsul of Africa under Caligula: not closely related to Appius Silanus), aged about sixteen. Silanus was identified as a suitable successor, sufficiently young to pose no immediate threat: he was made a vigintivir and praefectus urbiferiarum Latinarum causa. But the preference shown to Silanus naturally weakened the chances of others interested in the imperial office.
By and large Claudius was initially unsuccessful, or unlucky, in his attempts to build up a wide enough network of dependants to whom he had distributed bcneficia. Supporters appointed to client kingships included Mithridates in Lesser Armenia, and Agrippa in Judaea (the latter's role in the events following Caligula's assassination is empha-
41 Opposition: McAlindon 19(6(0 573), 19(7(0 374); Baldwin 1964(0 330); Meise 1969(0 375); Wiseman 1982 (в 198). Agrippina and Galba: Suet. Galba. 5.
sized by Josephus in his Antiquities')-, although Agrippa died in 44 after just three years, he was able to persuade Claudius to grant considerable beneficia to Jewish communities at Alexandria and elsewhere in the empire. As a reward for not challenging Claudius' possessio of the domus Caesaris, Marcus Vinicius was to be consul ordinarius for the second time in 45, and Valerius Asiaticus given a second consulship in 46.
Just under a year after his accession, on 12 January 42, it was felt that Claudius had distributed honours and offices to enough members of the political class to warrant accepting the title ofpater patriae. (He also held a consulship, his second, for two months at the beginning of this year.) This merely masked his weakness. After Caligula's assassination, those powerful governors who happened not to be in Rome accepted Claudius' elevation as a fait accompli. But Claudius' political inexperience and lack of military virtus gave those who considered themselves more suitably qualified a temptation to act. Galba and Aulus Plautius remained loyal; Appius Silanus and Camillus Scribonianus did not. Appius Silanus may have judged that if Claudius were out of the way, he, as the husband of Octavia's grandmother Domitia Lepida, would be in a doubly strong position to gain recognition as Caesar. The weak point in his calculation was that there was no love lost between Messallina and her mother. Backed by the libertus Narcissus, Messallina informed Claudius of Silanus' ambitions, and Claudius tried and convicted Silanus, not in public but in his domestic court, the consilium of his amici.
The execution of Silanus was a sign of Claudius' insecurity as well as of his readiness to eliminate rivals. The legate of Dalmatia, Lucius Arruntius Furius Camillus Scribonianus (adopted son of Lucius Arrun- tius, one of those who, according to Tacitus, had been thought worthy of the Principate by Augustus), calculated that his chances of survival would be better if he made a bid for empire himself. Scribonianus commanded two legions, the Seventh and Eleventh, and his attempt was supported by a number of figures in Rome who had failed to respond positively to Claudius' acclamation in the previous year. They included Lucius Annius Vinicianus and the consul who had summoned the Senate, Quintus Pomponius Secundus. Our sources tell us that Claudius seriously discussed the advisability of surrendering his imperium to Scribonianus. Unfortunately for Scribonianus, he felt himself unable at this stage to declare himself emperor — either because he waited for confirmation from his supporters in the Senate, or because he was hoping for support from other provincial commanders such as Galba and Aulus Plaudus. These commanders had no interest in forsaking Claudius for another emperor; and after a few days, the two Dalmatian legions abandoned Scribonianus. It was claimed that the legionary standards had become stuck in the ground as a sign of divine anger at their disloyalty. Scribonianus killed himself, and those of his supporters at Rome who did not were executed.
Claudius' third consulship in a.d. 43 was again a sign of weakness rather than strength. During these first years of his reign, he had to make every effort to ensure that he was popular with the Roman plebs — apart from staging games and spectacles, he initiated some major building operations, some of them directly raising the living standards of the Roman population. They included the draining of the Fucine lake, to provide much-needed agricultural land in the vicinity of the capital, a new aqueduct, and the construction of a safe harbour at Ostia. A riot early in his reign made it clear to Claudius that, since the time of Iulius Caesar, the supervision of the corn supply was one of the ruler's principal functions. Another was the supervision of the judicial system; particularly during his tenure of consular office. Claudius made himself visibly available in the law-courts. Even hostile sources (who dwell on his tendency to ignore the law in favour of so-called 'equity') had to admit that he was serious in his desire to be seen to be a hard-working judge.